MARVEL 02-20 CONFERENCE CALL WRAP-UP

[Eric J. Moreels]

<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/logos/marvellogo.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/logos/marvellogo.gif" align=left width=100 height=78 border=0 alt="Marvel Comics logo"></a>Today Marvel Comics held another of their occasional conference calls with members of the comics press, and X-Fan's own Jason Sarlanis was on hand to attend. Representing Marvel today at the conference were Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, President and COO Bill Jemas, Marketing Communications Manager Bill Rosemann, and Spider-editor Axel Alonso.

Whilst the focus of the call was aimed squarely at the upcoming Spider-Man feature film and the bevy of comic book projects that Marvel will be releasing along with it, there were a few items of interest for X-fans...


At the start of the conference call, Quesada mentioned that he was waiting on a phone call to see if he could make a "huge" announcement, however the EiC didn't receive the call he was expecting and as such the announcement was not made.
Writer/director Kevin Smith's previously announced Black Cat mini-series was confirmed for a June release. Former Generation X artist Terry Dodson will join Smith for the series which will be entitled Spider-Man: The Evil That Men Do.
Quesada will be providing the covers for writer Ron Zimmerman's upcoming Kraven limited series, which stars the son of the original Hunter.
The on-again/off-again saga of Spider-Girl is on yet again, with Jemas stating that the book is not going to be cancelled with issue #50 as previously announced. Instead, Spider-Girl, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther - the three Marvel titles that are, according to Jemas, "doing DC numbers" - will be extended for at least another year with a 25 cent price increase per issue. The idea apparently came from fan recommendations.
Unlike the Ultimate titles, there will not be Walmart-exclusive reprints of the Origin limited series.
Marvel opted for Ultimate Spider-Man #1 as their contribution to Free Comic Book Day (http://www.freecomicday.com/) because, although many fans already have this issue, with Free Comic Book Day Marvel is looking to branch out into a new audience. Right now, Ultimate Spider-Man #1 is the closest thing they have to the Spider-Man movie, and as such "it was a logical choice."
There has been progress with Marvel and Miracles, however Quesada said that is for Miracleman writer Neil Gaiman to discuss.
Jemas said that Marvel are in the process of digitizing their entire library of stories. Every new issue is converted straight to the digital medium, and they are slowly scanning in back issues. In time, Marvel are looking to make their Essentials line available in color on CD-ROM, but that won't be for another year at least.
Marvel are excited about the prospects of Marvel In Motion, a licensee making trading card sized CDs each containing a dotComic. (See "ORIGIN IN MOTION (http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=756)" for more details.)
Speaking about paid subscriptions for Marvel's dotComics, Jemas said that there will always be free dotComic content. There will be a second tier for registered users only, but that is still a while from now. They are not that sure if it will work, however, as right now dotComics are receiving about a million hits per month but if they go to subscriber format that will decrease by about 10%. They will make more money that way, but lose advertiser interest. The reasoning behind the dotComics format is to reach new audiences, but that too would decrease with a subscriber format.
Peter David's and Dale Keown's Hulk: The End one-shot is the only one of The End series officially on the schedule. The Chris Claremont X-Men: The End one-shot (see "CLAREMONT TO PEN 'END' OF THE X-MEN (http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=761)" for more details) is apparently not set in stone. Quesada did say that he would love for Claremont to write it, as the stories are creator-specific and as such creators who are connected to the spotlighted character(s) should tell these stories.


Look for a full transcript from today's conference call by X-Fan's Jason Sarlanis here later this evening or early tomorrow morning.

[Zachary Palisoc]

Too bad we're not gonna find out what the "huge announcement" is! Darn...

[atxbomber]

Originally posted by xpawn
I don't understand how a price increase recommended by only a handful of fans is gonna bring in more new readers, thus ensuring that the titles don't get cancelled in the future :?

I'll gladly pay an extra .25 if it keeps Black Panther from getting cancelled.

[atxbomber]

Originally posted by X-Fan
Writer/director Kevin Smith's previously announced Black Cat mini-series was confirmed for a June release. Former Generation X artist Terry Dodson will join Smith for the series which will be entitled Spider-Man: The Evil That Men Do.


Hmmm...

I had thought that Black Cat was going to be an ongoing series, with Smith only onboard for the initial launch (a la Daredevil).

Still, looking forward to it, especially with Dodson on the art chores.


There has been progress with Marvel and Miracles, however Quesada said that is for Miracleman writer Neil Gaiman to discuss.


Excellent, excellent, excellent :D

Hopefully we'll be seeing Miracleman over at Marvel soon

[TristenMagnus]

A no end, so far, for the Xmen, is good news to me.

Maybe I'm being a bit conservative or something... but I'm a bit iffy about the Dot-comics stuff. If it's all about paying, I'd rather just stick to buying the comics in book form rather than electronic form.

[xtremexman]

Writer/director Kevin Smith's previously announced Black Cat mini-series was confirmed for a June release. Former Generation X artist Terry Dodson will join Smith for the series which will be entitled Spider-Man: The Evil That Men Do.

Forgive me for saying this, but that does not sound like a Black Cat series at all. It's more like a Spider Man one than anything else. Once again Black Cat gets shafted and reduced to be Spider Man's sidekick. When will the madness ever end? When is she actually going to get her own ongoing series apart from Spider Man?

[KidX]

I'm of the thinking that increasing the price of something only leads to a derease in sales. Whatever. :?

[Ryan Scott]

Originally posted by xtremexman
Forgive me for saying this, but that does not sound like a Black Cat series at all. It's more like a Spider Man one than anything else. Once again Black Cat gets shafted and reduced to be Spider Man's sidekick. When will the madness ever end? When is she actually going to get her own ongoing series apart from Spider Man? It's been stated for a while that Smith's run with Felicia would start with a Spider-man/ Black Cat mini. From THERE, it would then springboard into a full BC mini or series, I believe. As to the title not having a cat reference, that IS something I find kinda odd. But as long as the story's ok, I'm ok :)

[xtremexman]

Originally posted by MabusRex
It's been stated for a while that Smith's run with Felicia would start with a Spider-man/ Black Cat mini. From THERE, it would then springboard into a full BC mini or series, I believe. As to the title not having a cat reference, that IS something I find kinda odd. But as long as the story's ok, I'm ok :)

I think the title should be Spider Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do, because at least then from the title we will know that Black Cat is actually involved. After this, Black Cat should get her own mini series, followed by an ongoing of the same name. That is just my opinion, though. Another thing that I was rather curious about is this - which imprint is going to be publishing Black Cat? Marvel?

Marvel Knights? MAX? If anything, it should be Marvel Knights. Wouldn't you agree?

[Jim Lemoine]

Originally posted by X-Fan
The on-again/off-again saga of Spider-Girl is on yet again, with Jemas stating that the book is not going to be cancelled with issue #50 as previously announced. Instead, Spider-Girl, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther - the three Marvel titles that are, according to Jemas, "doing DC numbers" - will be extended for at least another year with a 25 cent price increase per issue. The idea apparently came from fan recommendations.

Speaking purely for myself here, I would gladly pay even a buck or two more to keep books as good as Captain Marvel and Black Panther (sorry, not a big fan of Spider-Girl). I'd be really depressed if either of them got cancelled, and didn't know that they were endangered.

[Al Harahap]

Originally posted by KidX
I'm of the thinking that increasing the price of something only leads to a derease in sales. Whatever. :?

I'm in no way defending these people, but economically speaking, their reasoning (and it makes sense) is that they've had to raise the price to keep these books going because sales and readership have decreased. It's really a lose/lose situation because when they raise the price they'll lose more readers, and then what? Will they raise the price even more? I don't know. A basic law of business states that you have to be willing to lose money to gain much more. If we put it in terms of these books that're supposedly losing readers and therefore being raised in price, what I think Marvel should do is keep the prices low(er) and prove to the readers how good the book is with quality stories, art, and content. If they don't have enough faith in a book to do this, then maybe it's not worth fighting for and they should just cancel it.

[Kent H]

Raising the price by 25 cents isn't going to increase sales, and it's not meant to. The theory is that as long as all three titles maintain roughly the numbers they have now, by increasing the price Marvel increases the profit earned by each series to a point that justifies them continuing to print the series. There's a big debate about this at Newsrama where it's explained by people with a much better grasp of economics than me. It also goes into why lowering the prices isn't necessarily a good idea, either.

[Miqque]

Let me jump in (after a big thank you! for the conference call report and upcoming transcript) as I do know a bit about economics. (Some idjits actually gave me a degree in it for some reason.)

The very fact that such a price is debated means the tactic was sucessful. A higher profile title tends to attract more attention than an obscure title. The 25-cent increase does not "increase profits" - it merely offsets costs.

Bill Jemas said in his marvel.com column "Don't Ask" that at the resolution of the Spider-Man story arc readership fell from 400,000 to 48,000. That's about 12% of the expected readership, and the cost to produce do not change (actually, they get higher at cost-per-unit). Let me grossly round out numbers. If an issue costs, say $40,000 to produce, divided by 400,000 issues that's a production cost of 10 cents each. The same issue (production cost remains constant) for a 48,000-issue run cost the company 83 cents apiece. (These are pie-in-sky numbers, they are just to get the idea across.)

Throw in distribution, advertising (which gains the company less the fewer issues that are printed), maybe a penny per issue for the writer and two for the penciller, and all of a sudden you're looking at a $2.25 comic that costs $2.26 to get to the reader's hands.

Actually, I find comics an incredible value as collected art, and unique in the fact that so main retain or increase in value over time. I just wonder how little they must pay the creative people to keep costs so low. Go on - try to hire a writer or artist. Just for the day. The real message here is that we're blessed with people dedicated enough to put out a high-quality product every month, and who are truly concerned about their readers. I find that awesome.

[Eric J. Moreels]

A big thank you to Jason for jumping in at the last minute and agreeing to be thrown in the deep end of his first reporting gig! :)

[Aaron Thall]

:D

Happy happy joy joy! Spider-Girl, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther continue forward! WOOHOO!

<Does happy dance>

Three of my favorites LIVE!

:cylon:

I'll be watching, Marvel... To make sure they don't get canned...

:cylon:

Hey, that little thing is nifty... Like Triclops from He-Man!

:cylon: :cylon: :cylon:

FUN!

[Blink]

Can someone please explain to me the Free Comic Day & the End one-shot series, please?

[Eric J. Moreels]

Blink,

For more details on Free Comics Day, check out www.freecomicsday.com (http://www.freecomicsday.com/)

For more on "The End" one-shots, check out the recent "CLAREMONT TO PEN 'END' OF THE X-MEN (http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=761)" article here at X-Fan.

[FreakyFlyBry]

I'm happy to see Spider-Girl, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther continuing. Can't wait for Kevin Smith's Black Cat!

[Anthony Lucynski]

(Some idjits actually
gave me a degree in it for some reason.)

Me to! Makes me wonder if they just had a stack of them lying around and needed to do some spring cleaning....

Anthony L

[Miqque]

Anthony L. -

You think if we find enough of them, perhaps we can trade in the stack for something of value?

[Brian Wilkinson]

I would LOVE to get in on these sorts of things!


Personally, I want as much journalism experience as I possibly can get at a professional level. It only helps when filling out a resume...

[Erwin Rafael]

Originally posted by xpawn
I don't understand how a price increase recommended by only a handful of fans is gonna bring in more new readers, thus ensuring that the titles don't get cancelled in the future :?

the price increase is not imposed to lure in new readers but to keep Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Spidergirl from being cancelled given that its current readership would remain loyal. it is a short-term solution that is necessary to buy Marvel enough time to find a way to lure new readers to these books.

you know what, if every member of X-Fan would spare an additional $2.75 from now on to add at least one of these three outstanding titles to his/her current collection, i think that would be a really big help. i just added Black Panther to my monthly pull. most of the time, we urge Marvel to lure in new readers to these titles when we ourselves do not go out of our way to add these titles to our collection...

btw, it's nice to be back in the MBs again :D

[xtremexman]

Originally posted by Erwin Rafael


the price increase is not imposed to lure in new readers but to keep Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Spidergirl from being cancelled given that its current readership would remain loyal. it is a short-term solution that is necessary to buy Marvel enough time to find a way to lure new readers to these books.

you know what, if every member of X-Fan would spare an additional $2.75 from now on to add at least one of these three outstanding titles to his/her current collection, i think that would be a really big help. i just added Black Panther to my monthly pull. most of the time, we urge Marvel to lure in new readers to these titles when we ourselves do not go out of our way to add these titles to our collection...

btw, it's nice to be back in the MBs again :D

Right now my monthly pull is consisting of X Treme X Men, Exiles, and Captain America. Now I will be subscribing to Black Panther and Captain Marvel due to the fact that they might be cancelled. I might have to wait on Spider Girl, though, because of my current money situation. I sure hope that none of those three titles gets taken off the shelf. It would be a shame if they did.

[Anthony Lucynski]

You think if we find enough of them, perhaps we can trade in the stack for
something of value?

I dont think so. Fat lot of good mine's done me.

Anthony L

[Eric J. Moreels]

Originally posted by AnthonyL
I dont think so. Fat lot of good mine's done me.

Okay guys, back on topic please.

[Eric J. Moreels]

According to a recent MegaCon update at Newsarama (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000832), Smith has had the title of his Black Cat mini changed to Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do.

And according to another report at Newsarama (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000835), the mini will lead in to a monthly Black Cat series.

[Ryan Scott]

Yup. That's what I heard at the Smith panel at Megacon, too. He said he went online to Newsarama and saw a post complaining that the name meant it was only a Spider-man book and was basically a rant and so Kevin called up Alonso and told him to change it. Teehee, it was funny when Kevin explained it. I suck...

OOOOR, you could just read the description on that first link Eric provided. Bah :\

[Eric J. Moreels]

Originally posted by MabusRex
Yup. That's what I heard at the Smith panel at Megacon, too.

So you're actually at MegaCon and you're not on-the-spot reporting for X-Fan why? ;)

[xtremexman]

Originally posted by X-Fan
According to a recent MegaCon update at Newsarama (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000832), Smith has had the title of his Black Cat mini changed to Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do.

And according to another report at Newsarama (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000835), the mini will lead in to a monthly Black Cat series.

Hey! That was the title replacement I suggested a while back. Big thumbs up to Kevin Smith for actually making it happen. Without Black Cat in the title, it would be kind of hard to explain how it could be a Black Cat mini series. And as far as the Black Cat ongoing series is concerned, you better believe that I am going to buy every single issue!

[Ryan Scott]

Originally posted by X-Fan
So you're actually at MegaCon and you're not on-the-spot reporting for X-Fan why? ;)

'Cause that would be too easy for ya, Eric ;)

well, that AND I was too busy turning all fanboy-ish by getting to meet and talk to Bendis and Oeming. :D

[Brian Wilkinson]

I'm just happy to have another Kevin Smith Marvel project showing up... and speaking of Kevin Smith and marvel, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back comes out tomorrow featuring daredevil and Joe Q.

Must buy... want to have it now... so funny...